Meanwhile, just realize that as the family of patriots are bankrupt with medical expenses and their insurance confiscated by the ir Born to Supreme Rulers, Congress has Gold plated, almost pre paid, health care and insurance.

Of course this concerns me, and we’ll be very lucky if no one else has been infected in Dallas, but I have no doubt that–unlike West Africa–we’ll jump on every case and isolate every contact, because we’re much less chaotic here, and a lot richer. In countries like Liberia, they can’t even get useful addresses on contacts, or spare the personnel to run them down, nor do they have isolation units worthy of the name. Here we do, and it will take more cases to overwhelm our resources than it does in West Africa.

What’s awful about this account is that the man came into a hospital with symptoms and was sent away with antibiotics without anyone’s having asked him about his travel history. We’re going to have to start doing that religiously. I would imagine those poor ambulance workers are very worried indeed.

Nevertheless, this is not a disease like AIDS, with a long infectious period during which the patient is essentially symptom-free. Also, although we have an idea of the horrific mortality rate in Africa, we don’t really know what the mortality rate is in a modern hospital. Most people who are given supporting care in a first-world hospital, if they get here before they’re too far gone, have recovered. Still, there’s no denying it’s a terrible disease.

I guess the only reassuring thing I can say is that when a sick man from Liberia went to Nigeria, they managed to quarantine those who he came in contact with and halted the epidemic in Nigeria. CDC thinks that is the case because there are no new cases in Nigeria for 20 days. However, he did infect 70 people before this occurred and so it is not all rosy. Nigeria has a reasonable medical system unlike Liberia where it was something like 40 doctors serving a population of 4 million and now it doesn’t exist anymore. Despite what people say, there is no treatment for this disease that has been tested in people. There are some vaccines tested in Monkeys that show promise but they will take a long time to cultivate and we won’t have enough for our population for at least 6 months, maybe over a year. The only reasonable thing to do to fight Ebola at this point is to contain it and the way to do it is through quarantine.

Why we continue flights back and forth to Liberia and the other 2 highly infected countries is beyond me.. In Liberia, I suspect that at least 1/500 people is infected and it may be as high as 1/100 people. You do the math since every week, over 500 travelers come to the US from there. One month ago it was about 1/2000 people infected in LIberiia. So it is no surprise that we have a recorded case in the USA. I did a travel search and there appears to be 2 flights per week to NY area from that country. Given about 100 passengers per flight and I think there are another 3 such airports in the country, we will be bringing at least one infected person to this country weekly, until we shut down such travel.

Texas is big and people usually travel by car, but in NYC public transportation is much more common,. We will see this in NY during the coming months and it will be much harder to contain it here, The maddening thing is that they are not taking steps to contain it at this point. What are they waiting for? Directive from the empty chair?

Haven’t you heard, they are waiting for disease and ebola to make people desperate enough for single payer government care. This is intentional on their part, allowing Africans in with ebola. Intentional.

JKB

Problem is, but beyond the Progressive awareness, is that like the response to Katrina, a serious outbreak will reveal government inadequate in response.

Government inadequacy? The government in Texas is Rick Perry. Convenient for The Regime.

JKB

For the younger, he might find this post from Instapundit yesterday of comfort. Woman of 22, in dire African conditions and without medical support, saved 3 of her 4 family members using improvised protective measures.

On the other hand, how her father got the virus is disturbing but hopefully unlikely in the US.

JKB

Now to be on the safe side, avoid large crowds, avoid public transportation. Get religious about following those pesky habits moms push like using a tissue, washing hands, etc.

And be seriously aware of your absent-minded habits. Like touching your face, even as you are helping to clean up a possibly lightly contaminated home after a relative goes to a hospital. Had to call, my 20-yr old niece on that. She was helping but concerned, After a bit, I had to admonish her to not touch her face until after specific handwashing. (She’s a medical assistant now). We must keep aware of to what we become after a while.

Or as I saw on nursing student on a in-hospital period, who wore fashionable, but floor dragging pants. The thought of hat she took home with her from the hospital floors still creeps me out. I pointed it out to one of the nurses who I hope offered some advice.